B.C. gang hit leaves one dead, another in critical condition

VANCOUVER • The latest fatal shooting in suburban Surrey, B.C. on Thursday was likely a continuation of the ongoing settling of accounts between rival gangs following the murder of Gurmit Singh Dhak in October of 2010.

“If you are thinking of a gang war where there is going to be a … shift in power, I don’t think that is what we are seeing here,” Sgt. Bill Whalen spokesman for B.C.’s Combined Special Forces Enforcement Unit, which targets organized crime in the province, said Friday.

“I think it is fair to say that it is a settling of beefs related to the murder of Gurmit Dhak last year.”

Related

“A lot of coverage has come out over the past few years that the Dhak-Duhre group is in conflict with the Bacon brothers … and this is just another iteration of that, this is more of a continuation,” Whalen said.

In this latest gang-related homicide, residents living in the well-off Surrey neighbourhood where two men were shot Thursday night — one fatally — said they witnessed a gunman flee into a waiting SUV after multiple shots ran out.

One of the men was declared dead at hospital and the other critically injured. He under went surgery in a local hospital, believed to be Royal Columbian. The men were aged 27 and 28.

The shooting comes just days after well-known Surrey gang member Sandip (Dip) Duhre, 36, was gunned down execution-style at the Sheraton Wall Centre in Vancouver on Tuesday night. He and his two brothers, who were associates of deceased gangster Bindy Johal, were known to be heavily involved in the Fraser Valley drug trade and allied with the Dhak group.

The Duhre-Dhak group has been feuding with a rival gang involving members of the Bacon brothers’ Red Scorpions.

Gurmit Dhak was gunned down in the fall of 2010 and his associate Jujhar Khun-Khun critically injured. There was another attempt on Khun-Khun’s life in Surrey in September 2011. Dhak’s younger brother Sukhveer also has a history of gang involvement and has been in and out of police custody.

Jonathan Bacon was shot and killed, and three others, including a Hells Angel and Independent Soldiers member injured, in a targeted hit in Kelowna, B.C. in August.

In September 2011, the Gang Task Force issued a public warning that anyone connected with the Dhaks or the Duhres, who were trying to extend their territory, were at risk of violence and retaliation.